My
Meaning and origin
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name popular in Sweden since the 1980s. Coined by Finnish author Tove Jansson in 1950, via the character Little My in the Moomin books, named for my (“mu, the Greek letter μ”), because she was the smallest thing that there is.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for My (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, My has been falling over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 2012. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Girls |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 129 |
| 1999 | 156 |
| 2000 | 178 |
| 2001 | 150 |
| 2002 | 155 |
| 2003 | 147 |
| 2004 | 152 |
| 2005 | 148 |
| 2006 | 127 |
| 2007 | 145 |
| 2008 | 114 |
| 2009 | 141 |
| 2010 | 180 |
| 2011 | 184 |
| 2012 | 201 |
| 2013 | 146 |
| 2014 | 160 |
| 2015 | 141 |
| 2016 | 196 |
| 2017 | 140 |
| 2018 | 146 |
| 2019 | 123 |
| 2020 | 112 |
| 2021 | 114 |
| 2022 | 130 |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Women and girls |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 3,079 |
| 2000 | 3,252 |
| 2001 | 3,399 |
| 2002 | 3,554 |
| 2003 | 3,699 |
| 2004 | 3,850 |
| 2005 | 4,000 |
| 2006 | 4,133 |
| 2007 | 4,261 |
| 2008 | 4,381 |
| 2009 | 4,517 |
| 2010 | 4,673 |
| 2011 | 4,859 |
| 2012 | 5,053 |
| 2013 | 5,193 |
| 2014 | 5,346 |
| 2015 | 5,496 |
| 2016 | 5,683 |
| 2017 | 5,846 |
| 2018 | 5,984 |
| 2019 | 6,100 |
| 2020 | 6,193 |
My in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter My.Hi! My name is My.
- My bor i Göteborg och pluggar till sjuksköterska.My lives in Gothenburg and is training to be a nurse.
- Vet du om My kommer på festen på lördag?Do you know if My is coming to the party on Saturday?
- Mys mamma är lärare.My's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Mys mamma is My's mum.
Related names and other spellings
More names
Questions about My
How do you pronounce My in Swedish?
In IPA, My is /ˈmyː/. Press Listen at the top of the page to hear it from a native speaker's recording.
What does the name My mean?
Wiktionary describes it as a female given name popular in Sweden since the 1980s. Coined by Finnish author Tove Jansson in 1950, via the character Little My in the Moomin books, named for my (“mu, the Greek letter μ”), because she was the smallest thing that there is.
How popular is My in Sweden?
130 babies were named My in 2022. In 2020, 6,193 people in Sweden had My as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been falling lately and peaked in 2012 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.